Aegre in Alie
by Relena Mishima
Summary: Sequel to Viam Eorum. Katniss, Glimmer, Gale and Madge have started their rebellion, but it's little more than an annoyance to the Capitol and District 13. Somehow they have to grow it and their fledgling army and find a way to wage full scale war to conquer Panem.
1. What We Do All Day

**Disclaimer:** I don't own The Hunger Games and am making no money from this.

This story, like most Hunger Games stories I've read will be told from various points of view. As normal, I'll note when they change.

 **Katniss**

Winters in 12 were always hard. It was cold, it snowed, game was scare, and on a lot of days it was either storming or just plain too cold to go out and hunt. Gale and I always had to prepare for winter months in advance; get ahead on supplies, hunt extra to trade for things we'd need, have extra food stockpiled, and even then it was a gamble. If winter ran long or was a bad one by the end we'd be in rough shape.

This winter has been nothing like that. It's been my first winter spent outside District 12; actually, I'm outside any district, not even in Panem technically I guess. Last year we set up in this old city called Charleston, abandoned since the Dark Times. It's far from the nearest district too. I think the closest one is 11, and that's something like three hundred miles away. It might as well be on the other side of the planet though; Charleston feels like a whole different world from Panem and its districts.

Charleston is too far south to get snow. Actually, it doesn't even get below freezing that much. And food? Not a problem at all. Our deal to get extra food from 10 has held, so we've had no shortage of meat. Our house is in good shape too. The roof was fixed, the walls patched, foundation fixed up, all that kind of stuff got done, and before it started to get cold too. The inside is even sort of fixed. I mean, there's all new water pipes, electrical and vents for heat and AC and stuff, the walls even got patched, but it isn't necessarily so pretty. All the nice trim and stuff is apparently specialty work that the people we have aren't so great at. The old mansion Glimmer picked out for us has a ton of that too. It doesn't really bother me that much (ok, maybe a little). Glimmer did her theatrical grumbling though.

Like we hoped, the war's basically been on hold, at least our part of it. 13 and the Capitol kept fighting, focusing on the food districts mainly, like we expected. There's been a few raids on our districts, just seeing if we could respond and defend what was ours I guess, but nothing big. We made sure the people were ready to defend themselves, and it worked fine.

The war part that directly involved us has been really routine, actually. Everyday it's breakfast, hearing the latest of what's going on (not much), what we need to do (not much) and then practice. Basically the same sort of practice we've been doing since after the Victory Tour, basic conditioning stuff like running and all that, then practice with weapons. We're not trying to master every weapon anymore, just the ones we use. And of course, there's guns; those we practice with a lot.

In the afternoons, well, I'm not sure what Madge and Gale do in the afternoons. War stuff probably. I don't know, look at more reports or fly to one of the districts to look over things or something? I don't know. Johanna and Enobaria are in the districts training people a lot, so maybe Madge and Gale go to check on them. Who knows?

Glimmer and I bail on any stuff like that. After lunch, we don't have anything to do with the war at all. All winter, and into early spring days like today, Glimmer go out exploring in the afternoons. At first it was on foot, but after not too long it was by car.

Glimmer actually taught me how to drive. We have one of those big SUV things now. We got it off a car dealership lot, and it was in pretty good shape, but it didn't drive when we found it. It took some time for Beetee to fix up, but he did a great job. He even got the sound system working for us. I guess it sounds kind of silly for a Seam rat, but I've gotten to really like having music to listen to while I drive. Cinna even redid the interior for us. I know it's silly and soft sounding, but I'm sorry, leather seats (heated ones too) are just plain nice to have.

We're heading out to a place we scouted before. It's quite a few miles out, but Glimmer thought it'd have some good stuff, so we're going there now. It's my turn to drive, but I haven't gotten very far at all before I have to stop. Gale and Madge are standing in the middle of the road just a few hundred yards from our house.

I open my window and poke my head out. "Um, hi. What's up, guys?"

"Heya, catnip," Gale replies. "You two heading out somewhere?"

"Yeah. We're just heading out to explore some."

"Mind if we join you?"

I look at Glimmer, who just shrugs a bit. Since she's no help I look back to Gale. "All right, hop in, I guess."

Gale and Madge get in the back seat, moving the packs Glimmer and I have there into the cargo area in the back.

"You two going camping or something?" Gale asks.

"No, it's just stuff that's good to have, you know? Med kit, some rain gear, bit of food, water, emergency blanket, lighter, cordage, that kind of stuff," I reply.

"What's all that for?" Madge wants to know.

"Just stuff that's good to have. Never know when you might need it and all," Glimmer explains. "Be stupid to not go out prepared."

"Where are we going anyway?"

"A place a few miles away. Glimmer and I saw it on a map and wanted to check it out," I explain.

"This is what you do every afternoon?" Gale looks at me. "You just wander around sightseeing?"

"No Gale, we explore, yeah, but we help out a lot while doing it. Who do you think got all of Beetee's equipment to the bridge to build that power plant of his? Or scavenged all the spare parts for his big workshop? For that matter, where do you think the playground for the kids came from? We found it, we pulled it up, put it all on that trailer Beetee made for us, and we brought it back."

Beetee's been busy over the winter. He made this sort of power plant thing, attached it to one of the bridges. It's sort of this hydro electric thing, works by having the river water move across it. Supposedly it isn't as good as a real dam, but it's good enough for our town. Beetee's got this big workshop too, this old converted store where all the shelves are covered in spare parts and broken tech things. I don't know what any of it is, but Glimmer and I found most of it. We even brought back the car parts for the garage he has in the back.

"Ok, ok, I guess you two haven't been completely slacking off. It's not really our jobs, but it does help I guess."

"We're here," Glimmer announces. She's not driving, but I'm pretty sure she wanted to cut Gale off regardless.

We actually are at our destination. I've got the SUV parked right by one of the entrances to an old shopping mall. I've never been to one, but Glimmer's described them to me before, and they actually sound interesting. Lots and lots of stores, all different kinds, it sounds like a great place to find stuff.

We all get out of the car, and Glimmer and I get our packs and the assault rifles we carry for this sort of thing. There's no sign of danger here, we haven't seen anything to worry us all winter in fact, but you can't be too careful.

"What the heck is that?" Gale asks, pointing to my gun. It's an assault rifle, just, well, customized a bit. One night, Prim was over at our house, we were talking, joking around, normal stuff and somehow one of us thought playing with the painter's paint was a good idea. After a lot of joking and teasing my rifle ended up with some leaves and vines and stuff painted all over it. It's actually kind of pretty, honestly. Prim's a surprisingly good painter.

"It's a gun, Gale."

"I know, just I've never seen one that looks quite like that."

"What's wrong with her gun?" Glimmer asks, carrying her own pink paint adorned gun. Gale just shakes his head.

"It's fine," Madge reassures. "It's not like they're going to take those into actual combat. Wait, you two aren't, are you?"

"No, of course not," I laugh.

"This isn't a warzone. It's just us, so relax. It's casual here." Glimmer's right, we have treated this as casual, and that means no radios in our ears, no armor, just two girls in casual clothes. For me that means I dress basically how I did when I'd hunt out in the woods, for Glimmer it's a typical girlie outfit. It might not be what most people would think is appropriate for exploring ruins, but I love how she looks in short skirts, so I find a way to deal somehow. "Anyway, let's go. We got a great parking space, shouldn't let it go to waste."

The mall is a big place, two floors and set up like a super long hallway. The second floor has the middle open, and the roof used to have skylights (the glass is long gone) so it's light enough to see as we walk around. The stores are dark, but Glimmer and I have flashlights attached to the barrels of our guns (which is really convenient), so we can still go in and see what's there.

Glimmer was right, there's a lot of good stuff in this mall. There's a gift shop that has this really nice chess set all made out of some sort of fancy stone that I make a note of. Glimmer and I can pick it up later as a birthday present for Beetee. There's bookstores too, of course;bookstores are always good. We can get books from 5 and 11, but the books there are all sanitized by the Capitol. All approved stuff, almost all from after the Dark Days, and all sort of similar and boring. I guess the Capitol censors don't like variety. This stuff is about all kinds of subjects though. The books are old and a lot are in bad shape, so it's real hit or miss what can be saved, but there's enough here that we can bring a few back per week and have books for years.

"Hey, Katniss, check it out," Glimmer calls from a store near the center of the mall, waving something in the air. It's a bit too far to see what it is, even with Glimmer's light on it. "They got the sequel."

"Really? Great, grab a few," I reply. Old electronics are great, but sitting here for seventy-five years a lot of them don't work anymore. That's why Glimmer is putting a handful of copies into her bag.

"Wait, the sequel?" Gale asks. "What is that? A movie or a video game or something?"

"A video game." It actually took a lot to get old video games working. The games themselves aren't bad, and they're small, so if one doesn't work it's not a big deal to have grabbed two or three spare copies. The game machine itself though? We had to scavenge almost a dozen, and even then Beetee had to pick and choose parts and splice them together to get one machine that actually worked.

"What the hell? That's why we're here, so you two can get a god damned video game?"

"No, we're here exploring. You saw the place, there's a lot of stuff here for lots of things and people."

"Besides, even if we did come here just for a video game, so what?" Glimmer asks, coming out of the store she was in.

"This is what you do every afternoon, just waste time on this crap?"

"What's it to you?"

"There's a war going on, and in case you forgot we're supposed to be running it. You're the one who wanted it, convinced us all to go start our own side, now what, you're bored with it? Can't be bothered? Got tired of it all?"

"Gale, what we do has made a difference in Charleston," I insist. "We've gotten stuff for Beetee; a lot of stuff. Actually if you look in any house in town I bet you'll find stuff that Glimmer and I brought back. Oh, and all those cool old school decorations everyone loved at Christmas? Do you have any idea how many people's houses Glimmer and I had to go into to find them, how many attics we crawled through getting them all?"

"Christmas decorations? What the hell, catnip? There's a damned war, that's a bit bigger than some pretty lights and crap to hang off a tree."

"Hey, just what is your problem?" Glimmer demands.

"My problem is you two have been ducking this all winter. Now the fighting's going to start again for us and you two don't seem to give a shit. You should be looking whose forces are where, looking at what districts we can attack next, reviewing our defenses, not wandering around every afternoon finding video game crap."

"I don't remember agreeing to any of that."

"What are you talking about? This is your damned war. We followed you into it, being the big heroes and all that."

"Yeah, and for my trouble I've been blown up, had a god damned bio weapon stuck in me and had my mom used as a hostage and a human bomb. And for all that we've got what? Half the districts we need to fight for real and no plans to get any more."

"Oh, so what, now you two are retired or some shit?"

"Gale I had Prim tell me it was time to say goodbye to my girlfriend. You remember that? You have any idea what that feels like, to be told that the person you love is going to die?" I ask.

"Yeah, I remember, and ok, that must have been terrible. I remember watching your first Games, it was bad stuff. But we started something bigger than us. We have a responsibility to Panem to see it through."

"Responsibility to Panem? What the fuck are you talking about?" Glimmer demands.

"Starting a war doesn't just mean looking pretty for a few propos, you know. There's real work to be done. Work you don't seem to want to bother with any more."

"I didn't start this war, 13 did. And the only reason we started our war was because they sucked. You remember them? The people who had seventy-five years to plan, to build up and train an army, to produce weapons, get guns, tanks, hovercraft, all that sort of thing? They started this. The only reason we did what we did was because they're no better than the Capitol."

"Yeah, fine, but the point is, we started something, and we have a responsibility to see it through."

"Yeah, no. Not going to just go on suicide missions to satisfy your sense of responsibility."

"Yeah, that's rich: responsibility. What about taking responsibility for the logistics of the war? All that boring stuff you two barely pay attention to every morning, and all the stuff you don't even show up for every afternoon. Madge and I are running this thing with Haymitch long after you two have wandered off to have fun. See, that's the difference, we run a war, you play war."

"You know what? Screw you. I've got better things to do than listen to you acting superior."

"Doesn't look like you have anything better to do to me."

"Oh, want me to do something? Fine, here's something. I'm telling you to get walking."

"Get walking?"

"That's right. Because you sure as fuck aren't getting a ride back to town in Katniss' and my car. So unless you want to try camping with squat for camping gear I'd get walking now and just maybe you'll make it back to town before dark."

Glimmer and Gale just stand there staring at each other for a while before Gale breaks the silence. "Fine." And with that Gale turns around and starts walking off.

"What about you?" Glimmer demands, turning on Madge, who's been silent this entire time.

"I'm just here to see what you two do every afternoon," Madge insists, with her handsup in surrender.

"Sorry."

"No, it's ok. I know the end of last year was really bad for you both. After all, that bomb in your mom? My dad put it there. That or at least had a hand in it. It's not the sort of thing a girl forgets."

"So what do you want to do?" I ask.

"I don't know. If there's a way to do it, I'd like to keep fighting. But yeah, at the end of last year it didn't go great for us, and it's not like a lot has changed over the winter. Yeah, we didn't lose anything, but we still don't have a good move to make either. So we're kind of stuck."

"And just what does Gale want from us?" Glimmer asks.

"I don't know; I guess to feel like you two haven't given up? He's as frustrated as the rest of us, believe me. No one really knows what to do, and we're almost out of time to decide. Either we figure it out or some army will show up in one of our districts and decide for us."

"And if that happens we won't be able to hold them," I state.

"Maybe against 13, but not against Snow," Madge confirms.

"And if Snow does come for our districts we'll be stuck in Charleston full time real quick, spending the rest of our lives wondering when Peacekeepers will show up to kill us all," Glimmer completes the scenario. Cheerful stuff.

 **Haymitch**

It's late in the day when the kid comes into my house. Doesn't knock or shit, just walks in. Actually, he looks kind of crappy. Like tired and surly. "Had fun out with the girls?" I ask.

"Yeah, loads, so much I walked home from some god damned mall miles away."

"Why the hell you do that? I thought they had one of those big car or little truck SUV things?"

"Oh shut up. Things didn't go great; Katniss and Glimmer aren't exactly interested in the war much anymore and they didn't like hearing what I had to say."

"I'm sure you were charming and subtle talking to them"

"Look, you asked me to talk to them and I did. The end of last year really screwed with their heads. I can't say I don't understand or sympathize. I mean, things kind of did go to shit for those two."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I was there. All right, thanks kid."

I'll have to see what girlie has to say. She at least had the tact to not have to walk home, but I'm figuring on basically the same answers from her. No great revelations there, just confirming what was pretty damned obvious over the winter: the girl's hearts just aren't in this anymore.

Despite the stupidly ridiculous odds, it wasn't bullets or bombs or shit like that, no the girls survived that. Their damned spirit though, that's fucked. Sounds like even if I could get them back in the field they may just go through the motions. Sure, they've trained and their going through the motions is better than most other people's best, but when you need fucking miracles the girls phoning it in just won't cut it.

No, if I'm going to get them out and fighting again it has to be something that they'll really get excited about, have their hearts in it and shit. Not that I've got any sort of plan that remotely qualifies. The whole thing of four kids just landing in a district and magically liberating the place is a great story and all, real novel and uplifting and shit, but Snow and 13 are on to it. There's no place so lightly defended or that's got that much of an insurgent network for them to use that I know of anymore.

Anywhere I look we need a god damned army to invade, and we don't have it. What's worse, everyone knows we don't have one, so we can't bluff or shit like that. Snow and 13 both know we aren't a factor and that we can't really increase our presence, so they can just leave us alone and deal with us whenever the hell they feel like and there's not a fucking thing we can do about it.

I don't know what the fuck to do, not for getting more territory, not for getting princess and sweetheart to give a fuck again, none of it. That doesn't change overnight either; it's another bullshit boring logistics briefing over breakfast. Yeah, yeah, food supply this, army training update that. I'm bored, the kids are bored, this shit's all meaningless and everybody knows it.

"You know what, fuck it. We're going to the fancy hologram table." This crap won't get anyone to give a fuck. If normal war shit won't cut it then I'll try as bat shit crazy as I can think of.

The kids grab their coffee cups and a few pieces of bacon and follow me into the war room. I'm sure it was made as a living room or parlor or some shit, but we stuck a holographic table in there and it's been the room for running the war. Well, ok, the room for the kids; I've got my entire house covered in war shit, reports, photos, intel briefings, everything. The girls though, it's just one room for them.

I fire up the hologram table and have it show a map of Panem. After a bit of dramatic looking, panning across the map and zooming in there's a holographic fuel stop next to some train tracks hovering in the air above the table.

"So this is a fuel stop, last one outside our target district. We're going to use the hovercraft we have to ferry our troops to this area. With only a few hovercraft it'll take a while. So our people get there, then sit and wait, and when the last train of the day comes in and that's the ride for our army," I explain.

"So we're hijacking a train?" girlie asks.

"No, you won't be anywhere near there."

"Why not? The army's going to need our help," the kid points out.

"Won't make a difference. We've got about half the number of people I'd like to have. It doesn't matter how damned well you all can shoot; it's just not enough."

"So what the hell's the point if we're just going to send people off to die?"

"You four are going to take over the Peacekeeper command and control stuff. Send out fake orders, split up their troops, send them all over wasting their time and feeding bunches of them to our forces to overwhelm. It'll take a while to do it, but over the course of a night if we coordinate you four with the forces on the ground we can split the Peacekeepers up and eliminate them one group at a time."

"Wait, you want us to go into some district and sneak into a Peacekeeper base? Because the last time we tried to sneak into somewhere it didn't work so well, and that was only a factory," sweetheart complains.

"Can we even sneak in to a Peacekeeper base? Those places haven't looked like the sorts of places we could get into, not even Gale, not with the walls those places tend to have," girlie points out.

"Matter of fact I do have a way to get you all over the wall." I grin; the kids are going to love this next part. "Your insertion point is here."

I move the holographic map to show 6, the source of our stolen hovercraft and the place where princess got blown up by some asshole's grenade and got a bio weapon stuck into her side for her trouble. There's a little hovercraft icon sitting a mile or two outside the wall. It looks innocent enough until I rotate the view around and everyone can see the little icon isn't on the ground, it's way up in the air.

"Uh huh. Cute," the kid glares at me.

"Your insertion point is a few miles outside the district's outer boundary, 10,000 feet up in the air," I explain. "Cinna found this thing called a wing suit in some of the old crap the girls brought back. It's this outfit made of some weird material that basically lets you fly. Well, glide, but basically the same thing."

"Wait, you actually mean we're going to just fly? What, like we jump out of the hovercraft and then we land on the roof of some Peacekeeper building?" princess asks.

"Whoa, whoa, hold on there," sweetheart looks at princess. "Glimmer and I need a minute to talk. We'll be right back." Sweetheart takes princess' hand and drags her out of the room. Princess just smiles like she thinks her suddenly pushy girlfriend is the funniest thing in the world.

 **Glimmer**

Katniss drags me out to our backyard. It was all overgrown when we got here. I mean, duh, it'd been abandoned for seventy-five years, of course it'd be a mess. It's been cleared out though. Got my mom to thank for that. She doesn't exactly have a lot of skills that are useful in a place like Charleston, so she's done stuff trying to pretty the place up. It meant a ton of clearing out the scrub and jungle and all that kind of junk basically. After that was making places for gardens and areas for plants and all that. Now that spring is almost here I imagine she'll be planting stuff soon. For now though it's just empty and apparently a good place for a private conversation between Katniss and I.

"Something on your mind?" I smile at Katniss.

"You know exactly what's on my mind." From the look on her face I guess Katniss isn't amused.

"Not a fan of that plan I'm guessing."

"Glimmer, the thing was practically custom made for you. It's no secret we aren't exactly 100% on board with this war anymore and now all of a sudden bam, here's this mission that everyone knows you'll love."

"Katniss, they're going to make us fly. Like actually fly. You're telling me that doesn't sound absolutely amazing?"

"See, that's exactly what I mean, that look in your eyes right there. It's like you've forgotten all of last year."

"I haven't forgotten, Katniss. But, well, ok, how about this. What do you want to do?"

Katniss stops and thinks for a while. "I don't really know. If it was just this one district, then maybe. But even if it all works and we win, we're still one short. It doesn't sound like much, but Haymitch keeps saying we need four…."

"I'm not sure we should just say no because of what might have to happen after. Let's just look at this one mission."

"No, if we go do this we'll be on the hook for more. Everyone will go on how we had a chance to say no, we didn't and now we have a responsibility to keep going and all that. You know exactly how it'll go." She's right, I do. It'll be like that argument with Gale yesterday, just scaled way up.

"I guess we could do something about that. We are in charge and all,so we just tell Haymitch that it's up to that other team of Finnick, Johanna and Enobaria to take a district on their own, without our help at all, or the whole war thing doesn't happen."

"That sounds kind of selfish, Glimmer. Holding the whole thing hostage like that?"

"So what? We've risked our lives, had all this terrible stuff happen to us, I'm tired of it. We brought those three to actually do things. The way I see it if they can't pull their own weight then screw it. I didn't propose this war planning to have to actually personally kill each and every Peacekeeper in Panem. So Haymitch and them find some way to make it happen or screw it, we go scavenge malls and play video games and crap full time."

"So you want to actually do it then? Go back to fighting?"

"Well, I didn't say that specifically. Just how we could do this one mission and not be on the hook for everything else."

"But you do want to do it," Katniss insists.

"I'm not exactly hard to read I guess? It's a chance to fly, that sounds awesome. How can I say no to that?"

"It's not just a chance to fly. We could get Cinna to make us those wing suit things, whatever they are without the war."

"I know," I agree. "But Katniss, you know I'm the sort to fight; it's just who I am."

"But what about all the stuff we've been doing all winter? The exploring, finding all kinds of lost things, helping people around town, heck just hanging out and doing whatever we feel like, you don't want to do all that anymore?" There's almost a hint of desperation creeping into Katniss' voice.

"I like that stuff, it's been a really fun winter, the best I've had in years it's just…." I trail off. "You know what, I'm fine either way. Whatever you want to do is fine."

"What?"

"It's up to you. I'll be ok either way. Do what you think is best, what you can live with and be happy with and whatever it is I'm good with it."

"You're just dumping this on me? What the heck, Glimmer?"

"I'm not dumping it on you, I don't want to do that at all. But really, I can live with either outcome. If it was just me, yeah, I know what I'd do, but it isn't just me. It's both of us, and I care a lot more about you being happy than I do about my desire to hurt Snow and his minions."

"So I decide how the entire war will go."

"Katniss, I told you a while ago that if you ever wanted to walk away from all that I'd back you, no questions asked. That hasn't changed. So just do what you can live with, what will make you happy, and either way, I'm with you."

Yeah, I know Katniss probably thinks it's unfair to make her decide everything, but really I don't see another way. I don't want to push her either way, and if I didn't totally back off this decision I'm pretty sure I would. Me? Yeah, I'd probably do it. I default to fighting usually, and flying is just too cool to pass up. But this life Katniss and I have had all winter isn't a bad one; I could totally live with this. So it's all up to Katniss now.

 **Author's Notes:**

So part four has started. And for those wondering about the title, it's Latin for 'On Uncertain Wings'. Or so Google tells me. Machine translation is not the most perfect of things.

Of course, thanks to that-fan for his help with this. And thanks as well to people who've stuck with me and read all the way to this fourth story in the series. I appreciate it.


	2. Uncertain Wings

**Disclaimer:** I don't own The Hunger Games and am making no money from this.

This story, like most Hunger Games stories I've read will be told from various points of view. As normal, I'll note when they change.

 **Katniss**

So these wing suit things are stupid dangerous. I'm not sure why anyone is surprised; we're jumping out of a hovercraft like, two miles up or something, how could anyone think that's safe? And forget actually learning to use the things yet, it turns out Beetee has to invent some fancy thing just so we can use them. Apparently you're supposed to use a parachute when you're close to the ground, but that's not really fast or sneaky, so he's making some machine to do the job.

It's something about taking the hovercraft parts that make it, um, hover or fly or whatever; building small versions of them, sticking in a battery for a single use and in theory, we get close to the ground, the machine realizes it and then makes us slow way down. It's a nice theory. Right up until Beetee started tossing test dummies out a fifth floor window in one of the buildings downtown. Let's just say there's a lot of dummy parts in the street and not a lot of slowing down.

Supposedly it's all part of the process; it'll all be ready for, just issues with miniaturization and things like that. It seems like Beetee isn't really used to inventing with an audience. I wonder, was inventing force fields better? Whatever he tried to protect with one must have gotten really plastered with the stuff he tossed at the force field.

There isn't much we can do to practice in the meantime. Since the old way to land the things was with a parachute and we won't be using one, we're stuck just waiting around. Beetee says his fancy machine will be ready for us to test soon, and when it is, he's suggesting jumping out of a hovercraft at a low altitude over water, with some stretchy cord tied to us, so we won't wind up dunking the machine unless things go really wrong.

It's not that I'm even super eager to do this. Yeah, Glimmer left it up to me. I know she wants to do it, but would have gone along if I'd said no. Gone along and not said a thing about it. But like Gale said, we do have a responsibility. People believe in us and stuff, act like we're some new nobility and look up to us, and no matter how much I might not want to go back to war, all that does mean something. So I decided that we're going back to war.

So I've been trying to enjoy the last few days off with Glimmer. We're doing the same stuff: exploring, playing games, that kind of thing, but it's sort of tough. It's like, there's this nervousness that makes it hard to relax and enjoy things.

One of the last days before we're set to start learning to um… fly, Gale asks me something at the morning war stuff meeting. It's been a boring meeting, not a lot to talk about, just the usual stuff.

"Hey catnip," Gale starts. "Been meaning to ask you something. Figure before we're set to jump out of a hovercraft and maybe die this is a good time."

"Cheerful thought, Gale," Glimmer deadpans.

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, why'd you two come back? I can see Glimmer, sure. This is the sort of plan that she can't resist. But what about you, Katniss?"

"I don't know, " I start. "You're right, Glimmer wanted to come back for this, but she didn't push it; didn't even say it actually. She just said it was up to me and she'd go with whatever I decided."

"What the hell?" Haymitch asks. "I came up with that crap so she'd drag you along."

"I know," Glimmer replies. "I wasn't going to just let Katniss get dragged around though."

"So what was it, catnip?" Gale asks again.

"It was a few things I guess. One was the whole responsibility thing. Not that we're responsible for Panem or any of that. It's just, well, we started it; that makes us responsible for it. You know, we have to finish it, see it to the end, or at least try to. And also, you all are doing it, fighting and stuff, and I really don't want to leave my friends and family like that."

"Ah. Glad you're on board again then."

"Yeah, I'm on board, Gale. But don't get the wrong impression here; I'm not doing this because I love it or anything. I liked this past winter; it's been one of the happiest times of my life in fact. Everyone was safe, warm, well fed, we had things to do and there wasn't anything hanging over our heads. I'd much rather keep doing that for the rest of my life than fighting more."

"It's not all bad," Madge tries to reassure me. "We're helping people. Just think about how everyone in 5 and 11 was after we liberated them. It's good work we're doing."

"I know, Madge. And you're right, there's good parts to it. But being left alone without anything trying to kill me or my family? I've wanted that all my life. So even if it has good parts, it isn't what I really want. Not like I've usually gotten to do what I want though, so I'm used to it. Anyway, can we just move on? I'm here, I'm doing this, we don't need to look at why, do we?"

People take the hint. Or rather, the blatant request, and no one asks me why I'm here anymore.

 **Haymitch**

One battle, that's all I got out of the girls. Past that it's on the B team to prove they can get something done. Not that I disagree. Those three need to actually accomplish something (bodies of murdered kids on TV don't fucking count). Being under pressure isn't cool though. Fact of the matter is, I don't have some readymade plan here. Actually I don't even have some half assed idea to start with. So basically I'm stuck talking to the B team and seeing what they've got. Hopefully one of them has some insights, probably on how to take their home district. If that's even possible at this point. It may not be.

But whatever, got to try. Just, I don't want to do it here in Charleston; the last damned thing I need is the kids or some family member hearing I don't know what the fuck to do or that there's no plan or shit like that; people hear that and crap starts to falls apart. So I figure since the B team's all doing training shit in the districts I'll hop a hovercraft with them and we can talk in the air.

It's early morning when they're flying out, of course. I mean, why the fuck wouldn't it be? Don't they have any respect? Some of us have hang overs, you know. But I've got to just suffer through it I guess.

"So we need to talk," I start.

"Huh, that's why you're here?" Finnick asks. "I thought you just passed out on this thing last night and randomly woke up here."

"Hilarious. But I'm serious here. There's something we need to discuss. The kids are only willing to keep fighting if you three can take a district on your own."

"What the hell is their problem?" Johanna demands.

"Apparently even teenagers have a sense of self preservation if you have enough people try to kill them. So after a winter with no fighting the girls got into this normal sort of routine and decided they aren't going to do it all themselves. They only agreed to our attack on 6 if you all get a district on your own, no help from the kids at all."

"So you have a plan, or are you expecting us to come up with one?" Finnick looks at me.

"I'm here to see what you all think. Obviously one of your districts makes the most sense; you know the place, know people there and all."

"Obviously 2 is out. The people are hostile and Peacekeepers are based there," Enobaria slams the door shut on that one. I knew it was coming, so no big deal.

"4's tough," Finnick starts. "Since 13 and Snow are both there, twice as many people to fight. If it was just one, maybe, but with two? I'm not sure what we'd do. It's not a huge place, the town's on the end of a barrier island, long narrow thing, so there isn't a lot of room to operate. We can get in east of town, east of the Peacekeeper base, and east of where 13's basically certain to be, but then what?"

"Can we just get into the town from the west?"

"There's another island west of the one 4's on, sure, and that's empty. But we still need to get from one to another, and the only bridge is a train bridge. That and it's got to be watched. And the water is patrolled by Peacekeeper boats."

"Besides, even if we get into town, so what?" Johanna complains. "I mean, say we get in, big fucking deal; we're in a town with no army, no plan and it sounds like shit for room to move."

"So are our options better in 7 now that you shit the bed there?" Yeah, I'm still kind of ticked about that whole thing.

"Oh yeah, real unbiased question there."

"Just answer the damned thing. If you go in is there anyone who will actually deal with you? And shooting at you or asking if you really did kill those kids or are responsible for all the Peacekeeper overreactions doesn't count."

Johanna gives me a dirty look. "You think you sound smart asking asshole questions that you should already know the answer to?"

There's a reason Johanna Mason wasn't picked as the face of the rebellion, and it isn't her face; it's what comes out of it. Frankly I don't know if she even had any friends back in 7 or what, but at least we had people friendly to the rebellion. If we just show up with those three and no army backing them or cool new super weapon or any shit like that we're not going to get anywhere at all. Fuck.

"All right, fine, so it's 4," I announce. "So your asses are getting dropped in there, tell me how you're going to make it happen."

"Well we have to get in somehow," Finnick starts. "South is the ocean, I mean, we can jump in and swim, but I doubt Johanna or Enobaria can swim that far. We'd have to make it pretty far too, within a few miles of shore the hovercraft would get seen, so south is out."

"What about an inflatable boat?" Enobaria asks.

"We could use one, assuming we scrounged one up somewhere. We'd need the right weather though, the seas kick up in a storm and a raft isn't going to be a good idea if that happens at all. And to not get the hovercraft seen we'd need to drop way offshore, ten miles at least I'd say."

"Damn, it really has to be that far?" Johanna wants to know.

"The ocean's really open, you can see things amazingly far there, so yes."

"Fine, what's the options for other directions look like?"

"Like I said, west is another barrier island. Railroad bridge and Peacekeeper patrol boats on the water. But it's not a super long swim, half mile, maybe a bit more, so if we time it right we can get across between patrols."

"You're going to be carrying guns and ammo and shit, none of which floats. How you going to make that swim with all that crap, fish boy?" I demand.

"Fuck. Ok, so west is out. Um, north is a bay, maybe four miles wide. I never was big into catching bay fish, but some people are. Supposedly the north shore is all bombed out and destroyed; old military base from the Dark Times people claim. We probably could land there and use a little inflatable to get across the bay. The bay's patrolled though, and it's a lot smaller than the ocean, so odds of being found are good."

"A poor option then," Enobaria comments.

"So that just leaves east. It's a long barrier island; it won't be hard to be dropped east of town, the Peacekeeper base and any of 13's forces."

"And what then?" Johanna asks.

"They we walk."

"How far exactly are we supposed to walk, and just what are we walking through?"

"Imagine it'll be ten or twenty miles, at least. And you can walk on the beach or on ancient crumbling roads basically."

"Why so god damned far?"

"Like I said, it's a barrier island, this long narrow thing. It looks like a giant dash on a map. Town's at the western tip, east of town, reaching up to the northern shore is the Peacekeeper base and 13's basically going to have to be east of that; there's just no room anywhere else for them to stage their forces. So we need to get past 13 and then Snow's forces before we get to town. If you want to do it all undetected, and I think we do, that means we have to insert real far east of town."

"What's the terrain like?" Enobaria demands.

"It's um, not great, actually. The ocean has a beach, sure, fine white sand, not that walking on sand is the easiest, especially when you're loaded down with guns and stuff. It's a little easier at the water's edge though. Inland of that is sand dunes and thick scrub then, well, swamp. Like real swamp."

"Those choices suck," Johanna points out. She's right, but there's no point piling on. Actually, since they're more or less planning this out on their own for now I'm content to just sit and watch.

"That's why I said we might want to take the roads, not that that's without risk too; we'll be easy to spot."

"So beach, swamp or roads. That's all crap."

"The swamp is really not what I'd recommend. It'd dense, it's wet, it's slow. If we make one or two miles an hour through it, we'll be lucky. And there's predators around too. Gators in the swamp, bears and supposedly a few people have seen some big cats, jaguars or something." Finnick explains.

"Ok, fuck the swamp."

"Isn't there a shoreline across that bay to the north?" Enobaria asks.

"Not really," Finnick replies. The woods and swamp just sort of end right at the water, there's no beach or normal shoreline that's clear or anything."

"So it's shit all around," I finally step in. "Sounds like a coin toss from what I'm hearing then. So whatever makes for the easiest drop point will be the plan. We'll put you all in just after dark and that'll give you all time to move."

"And if we actually get to the town, what then? Sneak around, get the lay of the land, wear thick coats and stuff and try not to get recognized?" Johanna suggests.

"Coats aren't going to happen." Finnick shoots that part of the idea down. "In 4, people wear a coat maybe two or three days a year, that's it; it just plain isn't cold enough. So it's going to be more normal clothes, a lot of sneaking around and hoping we don't get noticed. Once we actually get into town, I should be able to wing it."

Wing it; this is starting to sound like a princess plan.

 **Glimmer**

I get to fly, actual honest to god fly today. Cinna's finished with the wing suits, Beetee's done with the um, whatever part he was working on and it's time to test them. We're heading up in the hovercraft to try it out now. We're all here, me, Katniss, Madge and Gale, along with Haymitch, Cinna, Beetee and of course Prim.

"All right, here's the wing suits," Cinna announces, handing a bundle of this really funky black lightweight material to each of us.

I take mine and unfold it, looking the thing over. It's certainly, um…. "Uh, Cinna, no offense but this is um…. Yeah, no. You forgot everything that'd make it actually look, you know, good."

Seriously, the thing is this black overall sort of thing with material between the legs and between each leg and arm. It's practically shapeless. I know I've said I can make most anything look good, but I think I finally found something that might not be doable for me.

"I'm afraid this is what they look like. It's about aerodynamics rather than fashion you see. They have to fly," Cinna responds. "And the color is practical as well. This plan depends on your being undetected as I understand it."

"Can't you just fiddle with the wings you already made me?"

"I'm afraid not. Those are strictly for show, no flight possible."

"No fancy modifications or magic thing from Beetee?"

"You've seen what I have a for a lab, Glimmer," Beetee replies. "You got me most of my materials in fact. I was hard pressed to even make enough equipment for you all to land safely. Anything more elaborate will require a more complete lab, my old one back in District 3."

"Yeah, sure, we'll get right on that." More districts to take, sure, why not. Everything seems to come back to that, doesn't it. Well, except for ruin exploring, but war stuff is all districts or nothing.

"Quit your bitching and put the damned things on already," Haymitch interrupts.

So we put the things on. Flattering or no, it's what we came to do. They fit and look exactly like I expected, with this little gold colored box sitting more or less where a belt buckle would be.

"The box you've all noticed by now is my work," Beetee announces. "It's a deceleration device, based off the technology that keeps hovercraft in the air. It's what will reduce your speed from an almost laughably fatal rate to a much safer rater just before you land."

"That's the thing that let all those dummies you tossed off a building die horribly in the street?" Katniss asks.

"All part of the process, I assure you. All that trial and error is what led me to the current version, which not only works but has multiple redundant systems to accurately gauge your range to your target and slow you down at the last moment. It's what will make a fatal crash feel more like jumping out a second story window."

"Hey, jumping out a second story window can still get you hurt you know, twist an ankle, things like that," Gale points out.

"Quite so. But with the resources at hand this is the best I can do. Again, if you want better, I'll need access to my lab and associated tools and materials in District 3."

"So how do we use all this stuff?" Madge asks.

"You put it on, you jump out the back. There's a little visor thing Beetee made for all of you, has your air speed, altitude, indicators where the others all are, a target and a path to get there," Haymitch explains.

"How about how we actually steer and shit?" Gale demands.

"How the hell should I know? You think I jump out of hovercraft? Fuck no."

"Focus on keeping the wing sections open," Cinna offers. "That will allow you to glide, from there try small adjustments to steer and adjust altitude. But above all try to maintain a stable glide. The device on your waist is designed to slow you from a gliding speed, which although quite fast, is still less than pure free fall. If you simply plummet, I can't guarantee that you'll survive no matter how hard the device tries to slow you down."

"And if we can't glide, what then?" Gale asks.

"Then I'll be needing a spatula," Prim says. It's pretty grim humor, especially for her, but from the look on her face it's pretty obvious she isn't liking this at all. She knows what I know, what I think we all know (even if some of us might be trying to deny it or not think about it): if something goes wrong, we die.

No one laughs at Prim's grim joke; no one says a thing actually. Haymitch just walks to the switch for the rear gate and opens it. The hovercraft is in the air over the beach, and from how it's facing it looks like we'll be flying above the beach the whole way. I guess so if something goes wrong we can veer to the water, maybe have a softer landing in it? I don't know, I'm no expert but I think it's wishful thinking. We're high enough up that no matter what we land on if we just free fall it won't matter.

"We have to be this high up?" Katniss asks after staring out the back for a minute.

"This is just for a test jump, sweetheart. The real thing will be at four times this altitude," Haymitch answers. Clearly not the answer Katniss was looking for.

Katniss looks at me. "So just what part of this sounded fun to you?"

 **Johanna**

Fuck it's humid. Like seriously, what the fuck? It's spring. We're on the beach. It should not be this oppressive. And people actually live in this shit? Dumb bastards.

We landed on the beach just like we planned, a little after dark. Just when the last of the light is gone, once that shit quality failing light is over and your eyes actually start to get their night vision going. It sounded nice, actually. Some good moonlight, a nice beach, just stroll across it. I mean, people do that for fun. People are idiots.

We've got armor, sort of spiffy black shit, covers everything below the neck. It's not all custom like the damned kids have (we don't rate anything that cool or unique. Beetee said he was busy making the kids fly, which was obvious bullshit.) But hey, body armor, that's good stuff. I mean, I fought for my life in just regular clothes in two arenas, so this should be good. Yeah, that's bullshit. Armor is hot. Oh, and guns and ammo and water and food and all the other provisions we're carrying are heavy as fuck.

Sand sucks to walk in too. We're walking in the harder packed stuff near the water line, so it's not as terrible as that super soft shit (that crap's as bad as trying to walk in snow) but it still sucks. And we have about twenty miles of this crap to go. Not all tonight at least, that's the good news. We're going to get as far as we reasonably can, maybe go until midnight then cut inland and find a place to camp. Finnick seems to think we can probably find the ruins of an old house or something, so that should work pretty good.

So we're walking along, not saying a word. It's enemy territory, after all. Ok, technically not, we're way outside the District fence, but there's two armies around, both hate us so we can't chance it; we've got to act like we're in enemy territory and they could be watching or listening all the time.

We've been going a few hours, walking in silent single file when Finnick puts up his fist, the silent instruction to stop. It takes me just a second to realize why Finnick called a halt: there's the sound of an engine in the water, and a moment later a search light appears. Shit, a boat.

Finnick gestures to his right towards the dunes and we make a run for it. The boat isn't lighting up our section of beach yet, but it will before too long. It's not far to the dunes and scrub brush, thirty yards maybe, and even in the sand we make it in no time. As soon as we do, it's slow as shit though. Whatever the fuck kind of crap grows in these dunes is this dense crap, awful scrub shit that's got branches growing in every direction that's almost impossible to move through.

Finnick has a machete, but we're in such a hurry he can't use it much; a few hacks here and there for the worst of it, but mostly we're stuck climbing through this shit. Like some fucked up jungle gym. It's slow going, probably the slowest sort of terrain I've ever seen. If it was summer I'd have said we should have tried to ocean, just wade in and keep just enough of our heads above water to breathe, kind of just disappear in the waves. Stupid spring. Stupid District 4. Too humid to walk in, too cold to swim in.

We find the ruins of an old road maybe a hundred yards in (which at the like, one mile per hour or less that we moved through that scrub crap took forever to cover.)

"Ok, this looks like it follows the coast," Finnick quietly announces.

"Is it safe?" Enobaria asks.

Finnick shrugs. "No idea; I've never been outside the district like this."

"Maybe we find a place to spend the night then?" I suggest. Like bumble fucking around on some abandoned road looking for the ruins of a house is going to be easy.

The good news is that this road is mostly residential. There's a few stores or restaurants or crap like that (ok, ruins of them) but houses are actually common here. Finnick moves us up a little road, a few houses in so we're off the main drag, on the off chance anyone will come down it looking for us.

It's too dark to tell much about the house we set up camp in, and we aren't risking a light much. Basically we just go to in an interior room and set up camp. It's not much, three sleeping bags and a little camp stove, just enough to heat up some food on.

"We're keeping a watch I take it?" Enobaria asks.

"Of course," Finnick confirms.

"I'll take first," I offer. "Let me just get something to eat first." Middle watch is the worst, it's like you get a short nap, then you're up for a while and then a nap after. It's not real sleep, it's two god damned naps. I'm not a huge fan of last watch either. It's like waking up extra early for work; fuck that. I'll take first watch. I'm not dead tired so I can manage then I get nice sleep and I'll be good to go for tomorrow.

So I get to wander a dark house, trying to skulk around learning the sight lines, watching for movement, listening for attack and waiting for my turn to actually lie down and rest. Oh well, at least I don't need to do it in a full god damned pack. Small favors.

 **Madge**

It's not that I have a fear of heights; I don't. I like to think of it as a healthy respect for things that can kill you if you let them. You know, not being scared so much as butterflies in my stomach. I can work through them, but they're always there when that rear gate opens, when I walk to the edge of the hovercraft and look out. The first time was the worst, even though we were the lowest (lowest; that's a laugh. We were half a mile up.)

It's ok once I jump. Sure, there's that bit of hesitation right before, we can't all be like Glimmer and take running leaps out the hovercraft giggling like a little girl (or is that a deranged girl?) but once I'm actually out it's ok. There's that weird feeling in your gut when you free fall, then the fun sets in.

It really is fun too. Exhilarating, blissful, amazing, whatever you want to call it, it's great. Once you spread the wing parts of that suit it feels like you're actually flying. It's easy to see what Glimmer loves so much. Even Gale and Katniss enjoy that part of it, though not as much as me, and not nearly as much as Glimmer.

We all survived those practice jumps. Actually they all went basically fine. The flying part we all figured out fine, I mean going straight isn't hard. Turns were pretty ugly and hesitant at first, and it's not like we're up to flying through some obstacle course even now, but we're good enough to more or less hit a target now.

So it's time for the real thing. We're in the air outside 6. Our forces on the ground are in position and should have hijacked their train by now. Actually they should be on the train headed for the district.

"I've included all your standard weapons, strapped to your packs," Beetee announces. "That being said, I strongly recommend against using your usual fire arms unless absolutely necessary. Instead I've prepared a sub machine gun for each of you that you can strap on your fronts as you see fit. I've installed a suppressor on each one."

"What, like a silencer? Like in the video games?" Glimmer asks.

"Um, in a manner of speaking. The term silencer is actually deceptive, because while they do muffle the sound of a gunshot, they do not silence them by any stretch of the imagination. So it is not actually a clicking sound like games depict. It will be quieter than a normal gunshot, and hopefully that difference should help you maintain your stealth, but try to be aware of the limitations."

"Beetee's right," Haymitch interrupts. "You don't want to be fighting the whole damned district here, so play it smart. Land on the roof your display tells you to, get inside, find the radio room and take it over, all as quietly as possible. Then I'll coordinate shit from up here, just send the orders to the Peacekeepers I tell you to and let our boys do the rest. With any luck the assholes will be twisted into knots and picked apart and never know what's going on."

"And if it goes bad we make for the roof we came in on and you pick us up?" Katniss looks at Haymitch.

"In theory. But you're going to be on the roof of a god damned Peacekeeper base, not exactly the safest pickup spot, so no guarantees. Personally, I'd suggest not fucking up and making sure this plan actually works."

"Gee, thanks for that brilliant pearl," Gale mutters. "Where would we be without you."

"Where you are is about to jump. Princess is up first. As if I need to say that. Then sweetheart, you kid and finally girlie at the end."

I don't mind going last. Haymitch is right, Glimmer was going to be first no matter what he said. But after Glimmer I'm probably the best at this flying stuff (once I actually get out the door that is.) So I'll bring up the rear, that way I can sort of keep an eye on everyone else. Not that I could do anything if there is a problem, but it feels like I'm helping at least.

Haymitch opens up the back gate. It's night, so just black outside. Glimmer gives us a cocky grin then runs to the back gate (as much as anyone can run in these wing suits) and jumps out. Katniss shakes her head (I'm pretty sure she's annoyed just for show) and follows. A few seconds later Gale jumps out the back and finally me.

 **Author's Notes:**

Thanks to that-fan for his help with edits. This chapter was light on them, thankfully, but some need a ton of work. Also, thanks to everyone who reviews, I really appreciate it.


	3. Smelling Like a Swamp

**Disclaimer:** I don't own The Hunger Games and am making no money from this.

This story, like most Hunger Games stories I've read will be told from various points of view. As normal, I'll note when they change.

 **Finnick**

It wasn't hard to see that Johanna and Enobaria don't care for the weather in 4. I can't blame them, either. Spring isn't a terrible time of the year here, some years. Summer is oppressively hot and humid, but spring is usually better. Reasonable temperatures, low humidity, it's actually pleasant. This year is not such a year.

In bad years you get rain, a lot of it. Weather systems come through one after another, and before each one the wind comes up off the ocean, and that south wind brings miserable humidity. Sometimes the storms move fast and we only get a half inch of rain each time. Another time over a foot of rain fell in a day. I don't know how wet this year is yet (we haven't even been here for a day, after all), but I do know this is a humid year.

Even having lived here all my life, that first wave of humidity takes me a bit to get used to. I feel the air is heavy and wet, I sweat more than I first expect and get tired a bit quicker than I did in the winter. Really, nothing huge, and I know it's coming every year, so no big thing. But I can only imagine what it must be like for Enobaria and Johanna. Both are trying to hide it, but I can tell both are a bit off their game.

It happened in the night. Sleeping when it's so humid is hard. What sleep you do get is fitful, as much tossing and turning as actual sleep, and when morning does come you're covered in sweat. Hardly a refreshing way to greet the day. Really makes me miss my air conditioned house.

"All right, we'll be heading further west today," I announce over breakfast. "We'll check out that street we were on last night, if it looks safe we'll follow it for as long as we can. Sooner or later though,we'll see signs of other people, and when we do it'll be tougher going, probably in the woods or swamps."

"4 is really just one town? Like, the whole district is just a single town?" Johanna asks.

"Yeah, just one town," I answer. "It doesn't seem like much, but you'd be amazed how much fish this one town can catch. I've read in old books where fishermen would go out and come back with nothing, but I've never heard of that actually happening to anyone in 4. Ever.

"The ocean's bounty is vast, people say, and it's true. You can catch fish in the bay, fish off the beach, catch fish that run near shore, but the real prizes are further out. There's this deep trench that's thirty or so miles off shore. All these fish from the deep ocean thousands of feet down follow it. The trench narrows and shallows, so all the fish get concentrated and forced closer to the surface, and that's where all the serious fishermen get their catch. Big fish, hundreds of pounds each.

"You can catch them with just a few people on a boat if you want, and some people do. But mostly it's bigger boats, large crews, lots of lines and nets. Actually there's one boat that stays out all year; it's huge, a few hundred feet long, and it just stays out and catches nonstop. It's big enough that the fish are gutted and processed on board. Little boats ferry supplies and people out to it and bring the processed catch back in. The only time the thing comes back in is winter so it can be dry docked and worked on, then it's back to work offshore."

"You sound like a god damned tour guide," Johanna mutters.

"2 is much larger, many towns over a wide area," Enobaria comments.

"4 is technically huge, just the vast majority of it is in the ocean. There's buoys and markers for it though. Not a literal fence, but go past the markers and you'll get a hovercraft on your ass," I state.

"7 has one big town, it's where families live and the mills and woodworking shops are, but most of the people work in the woods, cutting trees, you know, lumberjack shit. The mountains have these logging camps all over the place. After the trees are harvested we replant them, but it takes years and years for a forest to regrow, so the logging groups just make huge multi decade circles through the mountains, from one camp to another. People live in them for months at a time," Johanna explains.

"I guess in a way we're lucky we picked 4 then," I look at Johanna. "Just one town, not a lot of area we need to claim and liberate and stuff."

"Yeah, but there's no room to work either. In 7, we should operate in the woods in unused camps for as long as we wanted, attack, then just disappear into the woods."

"We can disappear here too, if we find the right people."

"Who are the right people?" Enobaria demands.

"I have someone in mind," I answer. "A friend, if he's still around he'll help us."

"He isn't beholden to 13?"

"I'm sure he works for them, assuming he's still alive. I hope he is. Anyway, he'll help, I've known him basically my whole life. We just need to get into town and find the guy."

 **Glimmer**

Night jumps are the least fun sort of 's still flying, but it's in a void. Just a few lights on the ground, but most of what I see is in that display Beetee made. A target, a reading for how high I am, indicators for where the others are, and a few little wireframe things to indicate where some buildings on the ground are. It feels like playing a simulation of jumping as much as actually being in the air over a district.

I'm following a little colorful line on my display (my flight path), and my display shows Katniss, Gale and Madge are on track as well. Below are street lights from 6 and just a few lights from the buildings. It's after midnight, so most of the district is asleep. The only places with people awake are the hovercraft factory (they run shifts 24 hours a day supposedly) and the Peacekeeper base. Both have a fair bit of lights on them, though I doubt the roof we're landing on is lit. Wonderful, not just flying purely on this little display, I won't even be able to see the thing I'm supposed to land on.

It might be dark, but it's a calm night, so it's easy to follow the flight path. My display shows I'm close to landing, I hear the slow down box thing Beetee made power up and I brace for landing. I still can barely see what I'm about to be standing on, so it's as much memory from my practice drops as anything.

I land and immediately start taking off my flight gear. The helmet is useless now, since I'm on the ground (ok, roof), and the others will all be landing in a few seconds, and the wing suit is hard to move in, not something to wear in combat. By the time the others have landed I've got the wing suit off and am ready to go. There's no Peacekeepers on the roof, so everyone has time to get ready before we head for the stairs.

The door is locked, but a steel lock doesn't stand up to our fancy blades any better than Peacekeeper armor does. Unfortunately, while the stairs were easy to find (roofs only have one door to them, duh), from here it gets harder. The radio antenna on this building is easy to see, but it's several floors, so no way to narrow down where their communication center could be. So we're going to have to sweep the place, one floor at a time, room by room until we find it. And of course we're trying to stay undetected, which gets pretty hard to do when you're looking in every room in a building.

We go down one flight of stairs and stop at the door. It's got no window, just a big solid steel thing. I'm about to open it when Gale stops me.

"No, this is stupid," he states. "The building is only a few floors; I can search each one while you three wait on the stairs here. I should have the power for my invisibility thing to search the whole building, if need be."

"What if you need the power later? If this goes bad and we need to bail or something?" I ask.

"You think one invisible guy will matter much if that happens? We'll all need to get out, so no matter what that's three visible people."

"Fair enough. Just try to make it as fast as possible, save at least some power for an emergency."

"I've got to be quiet, you can't rush while doing that," Gale explains.

"Just do one floor at a time then, come back to us on the stairs after each one, don't try and do the whole building all at once, ok?" Katniss asks.

"Ok, sounds like a plan then."

We get in position, with Katniss opening the door and Madge and I ready to check the hallway and if necessary shoot anyone that happens to be there and see us. It turns out to all be needless though; the hallway's clear. Gale activates his cloak and he's off.

We stand around in the stairway like that for a few minutes, just standing there being quiet. The stairs are metal so if we move around too much it makes noise and echoes off the brick walls of the building. And obviously talking's out, never knows who could open a door to the stairway and hear. It's actually really awkward; we can't even sit down because at any moment we might have to run or fight or something.

Finally, the door we're all standing around opens and we point our guns at nothing. A moment later the door closes and Gale reappears.

"Nothing on this floor, just offices and junk," He explains.

"Power ok?" Katniss asks.

"It's still fine."

"All right, down one floor," I order.

We head down and repeat the same procedure, the cautious opening of the door, the lack of people that need shooting, and then the awkward silent wait. Then, a few minutes later just like last time the door opens for apparently no one and Gale appears after it closes.

"Found it. It's on the right, third door down," he reports.

"How many people in it?" Madge asks.

"No idea, the doors are all solid wood, no windows. It had a little plaque next to it calling it the radio room though."

"Ok, then we all go and hope there's not too many people," I state.

"And hope that Peacekeeper radio guys don't carry guns," Katniss adds.

"Yeah, that would be good. Ok, Gale, you found the place, so you take point, then me, Katniss and Madge brings up our six." I wind up putting Madge on our six a lot, probably more than I should. It's not like the girl's bad or last in line, actually it's the opposite. She can shoot better than any of us, so if something is gonna sneak up on us she's the one I want to have the first shot. Still, probably should change it up, don't want the girl getting discouraged. Next time though.

We head out into the hallway. The door isn't far, a matter of yards only, but it's a long enough walk for us to get unlucky. Some guy in a uniform (not even armor) comes out of a room near the far end. We see each other at the same time; I don't know what he's going to do, but before he can figure it out Gale fires on him.

The suppressed gun is quieter than a normal one, like promised, but even muffled, it's still a gunshot. It won't bring the whole building running, but there's a chance people on this floor could have heard it.

"Fuck," Gale curses. "Secure the room, I'll get the body and move it in there."

"What about the blood and bullet holes in the wall?" Katniss asks.

"Nothing we can do about those," I answer. "We do like Gale said, get the room, get the body in there and hope no one notices before we've done our job here." Of course if they do notice we're stuck in a room that probably only has one door, isn't on the ground level and will have a lot of jerks with guns outside.

I rush to the room to the radio room. The door's unlocked, so I burst right in. "Hands up and step back from whatever you're doing," I order. Last thing I need is some idiot hitting some alarm button or something.

"Who the hell are you?" one of the three people in the room demands. My answer involves shooting him. I mean hey, people already had a chance to hear gunshots once, what's one more time?

"Someone better start telling us how this radio equipment works or you'll all get the same."

 **Finnick**

We set out and started heading west on that same old road we'd been following last night. Now that it's light I can see how crumbled and decayed it is; I know I was worried about someone patrolling down it, but it doesn't look like anyone's driven down this thing in my lifetime.

Since we're still east of any of the forces I expect to find we walk on the road. It's easy and quick, so we do it, just sticking to the edge of the road so if we need to we can dive for cover. Granted cover is a ditch, which doesn't sound fun, but sooner or later we'll have to do it. Actually, we'll have to go through worse I expect.

We make good time through the morning, covering quite a few miles, we even manage to have a nice lunch in an abandoned restaurant (it seemed appropriate), but in the early afternoon the easy walking comes to an end.I call a halt to our little march and we all get down and just stay there silent for a bit, listening.

"Machinery," Enobaria states. "Hovercraft and heavy equipment."

"That sounds like bulldozers and crap. What the hell are they here for?" Johanna asks.

"From what I understand there's some cleared land here, old stores and parking lots and stuff, but the wilderness reclaimed a lot of it probably. So they need space to land hovercraft, mass troops, housing, all the military base kind of stuff," I answer.

"So what's the plan?"

"We leave the road and go through the rough stuff."

Rough stuff doesn't sound like a walk in the park, but I'm pretty sure Enobaria and Johanna had no idea exactly what it meant, but they learned fast. I've heard the surf in the distance now and then, so I'm guessing the road we've followed has been near the south side of the island. That means cutting north. Within ten yards of the road we hit swamp. For a little bit it's just swampy ground, wet, muddy, you sink ankle deep into the muck, but that doesn't last long at all. Ankle deep becomes knee deep, with some steps going as much as waist deep, and within a hundred yards we hit actual water that's between chest and neck deep.

Neck deep water is a real problem. It's right on the edge of too deep for me, but I'm taller than Enobaria and Johanna. Neck deep for me is too deep for them; as if the swamp wasn't slow enough already. Loaded down with all the guns and ammo and stuff we have, swimming just isn't possible, so we need to find a way around. The first thing we do is cut some small trees down for poles so we can get an idea of how deep the next step is before we take it. That saves us from going under, but testing each step, having to change course when every third or fourth step is too deep, it's slow as hell.

It takes well over an hour to even get close to the bay to the north. Once we're close, we turn back west, slowly making our way past the camp 13 has set up. Now and then we come across what's basically islands in the swamp, sandy patches covered in pine trees, but more and more it's just pure swamp.

13 actually has a big operation here; they're using every bit of dry ground they can find, plus some extra. They've used every parking lot and old building, clear cut trees on every dry patch and even are using sand to fill in parts of the swamp. Actually they're filling in enough that it's hard to get past. Getting a good look at their setup is good, but it's a lot more important to stay undetected. At one point, we're close enough to their people that we can hear muffled conversations not far off, all while we keep trudging through the swamp.

It's stressful, tiring, and the fact we can't talk to each other wears on us, but we keep going. By dusk we're heading back south, skirting around the edge of the Peacekeeper base and finally getting to the district's outer fence. I find some cover near the fence for us to stop under.

"We're finally here," I quietly announce.

"About fucking time," Johanna mutters.

"Agreed; miserable terrain," Enobaria adds.

"Yeah, I can see why there hasn't been some big decisive battle yet," I comment.

"So what now? That's the fence right? Or what's left of it?" Johanna's right, the fence has large sections missing, from the look of them where trucks or something like that just ran the thing over to breach it.

"Now we go inside and go find a friend of mine. It's late, so he should be at home."

"And how do we do that without getting noticed? Big black bullet proof armor isn't going to blend in, is it?"

I have to think about that. Johanna's right that all this armor will really stick out. Maybe we can get there unnoticed, but it's a long shot. Odds are someone will see us, maybe they say or do something, maybe not, who knows. Given that it's been weeks since I was here and that was before war broke out, I can't really say I know what to expect inside 4 anymore.

On the other hand, we could take the armor off, just carry it in our packs and we'd blend in, but if we come across a Peacekeeper we're sitting ducks; no protection against their bullets. Still, it's probably safer to try and blend in. I'd love to find a hat or something, try at least some sort of disguise for myself though; I'm pretty well known around town after all.

"I think our best bet is to take off the armor and just walk around like we live here."

"And if we're recognized? Or there's a curfew? What then?" Enobaria looks at me.

"Then we're kind of screwed. We keep our guns ready and hope we're lucky in a fire fight."

"Not an encouraging plan."

"The alternative isn't any better. Anyone who sees us will wonder what's going on, and we've got no control if they call someone and report us or what."

"At least we'd be protected from stray bullets."

"She's got a point bout that curfew thing," Johanna agrees. "We've got no way to know if there's regular people even around."

"All right, how about this. We go in like this, sneak around and see if we can see people around. If we do, we take the armor off and try to blend in. Try to steal a hat or something so I won't be so obvious. Oh, and either way, we need to find a garden hose or something, we smell like the damned swamp."

 **Haymitch**

Just waiting around on the hovercraft, that's all I'm doing. Me and sweetheart's little sister, standing around a holographic table watching a tiny little holographic train go down its holographic track towards 6. We're basically committed at this point. I mean, theoretically we could radio the train and stop it and then everyone on the train would get off and um, run or some shit like that.

Fact is, we don't have any escape or withdrawal plan for them; there's way too many to transport on any sort of good schedule with the hovercraft we have. So basically, even if it isn't 100% true, we're committed to this shit.

We haven't heard from the kids, but that's expected. Considering the radio jamming they got here last time, we all figured radio silence was best. So the first time I expect to hear from any of them is either to say things are good and they're ready to go with the Peacekeeper radio bullshit, or that things got fucked up and they need to bail.

"How long until we hear from them?" the little girl (ok, not that little, she's a teenager and pretty grown now) asks.

"No idea. They should have landed by now, but who the hell knows how long it'll take them to find the radio room."

"And if the train gets there before they find it?"

"Then they take the train station, cut the uplink so the district can't call for help and then… um, well, then we get creative, think of plan B or some shit."

"You don't have a plan B?" she glares at me.

"I'm not the only one here; you're here too. So if you've got some brilliant pearl speak up."

"Oh, I have to help run this war now, not just pick up the pieces after?"

"Hey, you know what we've got to work with; it isn't shit for what we want to do, so yeah, you help here too. You should know that by now. This whole bullshit plan is because we don't have anything better or even reasonable. Hell, we've got the other three over in 4 with nothing but a damned smile to work with. So yeah, you're always saying how you don't want to be treated like a kid, fine. We all have to do a lot more than we should be expected to or should have to and all that crap. Welcome to the grown up club."

The kids can all fucking yell at me later, whatever, but sitting here and getting bitched at by the little girl over this crap is just not gonna happen. Seriously, she should know by now the sort of operation we run here. We've got fucking teenagers running a war, trying to rule the world for god's sake. How the fuck can anyone look at that and think it's a normal, well run operation? We dumped three people on a beach and expect them to beat two armies. I mean, what the fuck. The girl's smart, she's a doctor for fuck's sake, she should know we make this shit up on the fly, and yeah, if she's going to talk she should contribute, not just talk shit. And if the girl wants to yell, well, fuck her. I can't be expected to just sit here on a damned hovercraft waiting around being a punching bag for the little girl.

"Hey Haymitch," Princess' voice comes over the radio. "We're here."

"You're in? You found the radio room?" I ask.

"No, we found the candy machine," the kid replies. "Of course the radio room."

"Oh, I want a candy bar," the little girl giggles and sticks her tongue out at me. Next time I let her answer the radio and I take a fucking nap.

"Good, train's about to get here. You get in clean?"

"Not exactly. We got spotted in the hallway. We shot the guy, but there's bullet holes in the wall and blood on the carpet where he was,"

"We moved the body into the radio room though," Sweetheart adds.

Shit, not the news I was hoping for. "Anyone noticed the mess or raised an alarm yet?"

"Not yet."

Even if no one noticed, it's just a matter of time. Even just a missing guy would be bad, someone will notice he's not at his post, but blood and bullet holes too? They'll know they're compromised and raise a ruckus, and they don't need a damned radio room to do that.

"All right, whatever, we'll deal with that shit when it comes up. You all know how to work the radio?"

"Yeah, we got a basic run down from the guys who use it. We've got them tied up in the corner now."

"All right, girlie, you're up. You're the voice of Peacekeeper Central tonight."

"Hmm? Why me?" girlie asks.

"Because most Peacekeepers are guys, and guys like hearing a female voice. And princess and sweetheart could get recognized. Besides, you've got a nice voice, it'll be soothing and all that shit; make them relax and do what they're told and not be suspicious."

"Huh, is that Haymitch sweet talking a girl? With lines like that, how can he still be single?" the kid shit talks.

"He's kind of old for Madge if you ask me," Princess piles on. "I mean, she's young and good looking, she can totally do better you'd think."

"Yeah, yeah, real fucking funny. If you're done being comedians try and get all the Peacekeeper units in the field to check in so you know where they are. Our people should be hitting the station soon, so you'll probably get reports about that, and I want to know where the hell these assholes are so I can figure out how to set them up."

We've been flying around and we can see some Peacekeeper trucks and I've made a note of them on our little holographic map, but no way is this all of them, and no way can I set them up if I don't know who's where. We're outnumbered at least two to one here, so every single encounter has to work or we're fucked.

 **Johanna**

So there's no martial law in 4. Not because Peacekeepers aren't assholes, I just figure they're too busy doing war shit to enforce martial law. Sneaking in wasn't super hard either; the outer part of the district is deserted, houses blown up, craters, burnt ruins and crap like that. Once we got past that we started seeing people. Not that we could get that close; we'd been walking in a fucking swamp all day long and we really smelled like it, so a garden hose was priority one.

Stowing the armor sounds good, but we needed civilian clothes too. Of course we didn't exactly bring those, so we had to rummage through abandoned houses for stuff that would fit. Fucking ridiculous, having to rob the dead. This is our fucking rebellion? But hey, it could be worse. At least I'm not wearing this ridiculous big straw hat Finnick has on. The guy looks like a damned cartoon character. Ok, sure, no one will recognize him, but they sure as fuck will laugh at him.

Not that going through the district carrying packs, armor and guns all while trying not to stand out is easy. People have got to be noticing.

"Hey, Finnick," I get his attention.

"Don't use my name, damn it; we're trying not to be recognized."

"Yeah, well about that, I'm not seeing a lot of people with huge packs full of crap besides us. We're getting a lot of looks, and sooner or later someone's going to call the Peacekeepers on our ass."

"I said this was a poor plan," Enobaria frowns.

"Look, it'll be fine. No one knows who we are, so if we disappear no one knows where to look for us. Besides, as long as we don't look like an immediate threat we won't be a priority for the Peacekeepers."

"That's not going to be good enough for long, damn it," I complain.

"Relax already, my friend's house is just ahead."

Finnick leads us through a little residential area to a house; it looks basically just like any other house here, pretty colorful and all, that tile roof, flowers out front, all the normal house crap. But so what, it looks just like any other house here to me.

"Let me take the lead here," Finnick requests. "Actually, hang back a bit, this probably will work better that way."Yeah, I'm really filled with confidence here.

Finnick walks up to the door and rings the bell. A little bit later a guy answers the door with a rifle pointed at Finnick's chest. "What the hell are you doing here?"

 **Author's Notes:**

Sorry this is so late. Just hasn't been the best of times here in real life. Anyway... Thanks to that-fan, like always. And of course thanks to people who read and review also. I appreciate it.


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